Patriots HC Mike Vrabel Transcript 2/5

PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE

February 5, 2026

 

Q: You’ve talked about the importance of Robert Spillane to your defense. He didn’t practice yesterday. He’s insistent he’s going to play.

MV: We manage these things. I mean, everybody’s important to this defense. Everybody’s important to our team. Not just one guy. And again, Robert does mean a lot to us and has had a good year for us. So, we’ll just kind of see how it goes today. We still have time to work through things before the game. And then we’ll try to put together the game day roster we feel like gives us the best chance. Hopefully that includes Robert, but again, we have a few more practice days before we get there.

 

Q: Over the years we’ve heard a lot of stories from your players about times when you’ll jump in a drill or break up a fight or something at training camp. Why do you like to do that, and what do you think it provides your team?

MV: I think I can provide – when you talk about the drills, just finding ways to help and to give instruction however I feel like is best for me to do it. Until I can’t, I think it will be something that I’ll want to continue to do, especially at the line of scrimmage and things that I feel like I have knowledge of or that can help, explain the technique and try to help the player do their job. As far as the fights, I don’t want anybody fighting. I don’t want our guys fighting in practice. I don’t want them throwing punches. They get thrown out of the game when those things happen. So, when they happen at practice or in a joint practice, I just want to try to get that stopped as quickly as possible so that we can get back to practice. That’s my intent.

 

Q: Just a thought on tonight could be a nice night for Adam Vinatieri in the Hall of Fame. What he meant to you as a teammate and how great a kicker he was.

MV: Well, you always knew that when he kicked, they were going to go in. I think that was just kind of what we always thought and knew if we got into those types of situations. The kick in the snow, that’s probably the greatest feat – one of the greatest feats I’ve ever seen on a football field. You could barely run, let alone approach and kick a football that length. So, obviously we talked about everybody means a lot to the team. During those years that I was here, Adam was certainly one of those players that meant a lot to the football team and to our success.

 

Q: Mike, yesterday you talked about how important the next 48 hours were. Can you talk about Saturday? In the Super Bowls you were in before, sometimes you guys moved. What will Saturday be like?

MV: Yeah, Saturday will be as normal of a Saturday as we can make it. We’ll be here. I don’t think we have a whole lot of options. So, we’ll be here. We’ll go through our walkthrough. We’ll have an opportunity for our families to be with us, take pictures and do that stuff. We’re not going to be able to go to Levi’s. We could have as a team, but we need to go somewhere where our families can be a part of that and everybody that means so much to us. Allow them to enjoy that hour or whatever that process is, to take pictures, see the team and take pictures with the people that they came here to support.

 

Q: I know it’s a busy week, chaotic week. What do you tell your team with the families coming in today? What’s your message?

MV: Stay away from it as much as possible. No, it’s a good balance. And again, everybody’s excited for this opportunity. They’re here because they love us and they support us, but also understand that we have a responsibility to each other to continue to prepare as much as possible and to be ready for every situation that could present itself in the game. Both of those things can be true. You can still enjoy your family. You can still have dinner with them on Friday night. You can still see them on Saturday afternoon, and you can still prepare to win the football game on Sunday.

 

Q: When you won the title as a player in 2001, it seemed like as that season went on, you guys started to believe. After having a tough season in 2000, not many people thought that you could get to the title, especially beating the Rams. And the Patriots last year had a tough season with only four wins. Do you see any similarities – also with the young quarterback – do you see any similarities between that team and this team, and that experience that you had as a player in that situation, is that something that maybe you could help your players as a coach?

MV: I think I’ve always tried to use everything that I’ve been presented with through my career from the time that I started playing football, whether that was that game, coaching experience, whatever, that season. We were 5-5 and won nine games after Thanksgiving. So, we always talk about how you have to continue to improve as the season goes along to give yourself a chance to make the tournament, be in the playoffs and ultimately get to where we are today. But I don’t really draw too many parallels. I don’t know what happened in 2000. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened in 2024. I wasn’t here. So, I just try to focus on where I’m at, being present and doing what I feel like is best for the football team, whether that was as a player or now as a coach.

 

Q: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, obviously a really good player for them. They move him around pre-snap and into the slot. What goes into your decision when deciding to shadow a guy versus playing more your standard defense?

MV: I just think it’s a balance. I mean, obviously they’re going to target him, and they should, rightfully so. He’s an excellent player. Got a lot of respect for him as a competitor, what his skill set is. So, I think it’s a balance. I think there’s times where you reasonably can’t just based on what they do with him and where he goes. We’ll have to be very aware of him, just like we’ll have to be very aware of being able to stop the run and the other things that they do really well. So, I think it’s just a good balance of being able to show different looks.

 

Q: Start with the vest. Is that a Stick [Preston] Rogers special?

MV: This was a gift, so I can’t talk about it. It was a gift.

 

Q: On the game, Mike, what have you observed from the Seahawks defense that puts stress on you protecting the ball, knowing that that’s one of your team identity goals?

MV: Well, it’s just they play hard. Again, we’ve talked about this. There’s an identity that they play with that they believe in, and they put on tape. So, we’ve always said when you have talent that plays with great technique and that plays with the type of effort that they do, that gives you a chance to really separate yourself and be special. So, I think they’re a great example of that. They’re talented. You see the defensive linemen playing the way that we would like to play and that we do play with, and they play with the technique that we talk about. You see them play with the effort that we talk about. They’re a good tackling football team. They’re not afraid to come and attack the football, and so they’ve done that really well this year.

 

Q: Tonight, Josh McDaniels, is up for Assistant Coach of the Year. What would it mean to you if he was presented with this honor?

MV: Well, Josh has done a fantastic job, and usually any coach’s success or recognition is going to come from the fact that the players executed, they played well and they did what was coached. And sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn’t, but I would be extremely excited and happy for Josh if he were to win, just like I would be for Stef [Stefon Diggs], TreVeyon [Henderson], Drake [Maye] and everybody else.

 

Q: Most coaches would want their players to have respect as a key value, but different coaches emphasize that differently. Your players have talked about how much you emphasize respect for staff and people who aren’t players. Why is that important to you and how do you decide when you want to emphasize that, whether with the towel story they were mentioning in training camp, the holiday decorations or some of those other moments?

MV: Well, thank you for referencing that. I appreciate that. There’s never a bad opportunity to try to teach our players the same way that I was taught or to grow the individuals that we’re around. We talk about the amount of time that we’re around each other, and so would hope that they would have respect for the people in our building, the people that help them do their job. I’m sure they told you some good stories. But I’m lucky to coach them, and again, we all have our moments. We all have our moments of frustration. We all have our moments of being upset, and that’s fine. It’s just making sure that we don’t take those out on the people around the building. So, we always talk about that. We always talk about having conversations, being able to ask questions, have meetings and find out where everybody stands. So, the respect that I ask them to show the equipment staff, the training staff, the interns, the cafeteria workers, those people are there well before the players are there, and they’re there well after the players are there to make sure that the players have everything they need.

 

Q: Mike, a lot of people are idolizing you guys in the Super Bowl, the players. I wonder, who was your idol as a kid?

MV: I mean, I was a basketball player. I liked Moses Malone. I liked Charles Barkley. I always tell Charles he was one of my favorite basketball players. I liked Bernie Kosar. Just a big sports family that did a lot of things.

 

Q: You’re working with a lot of coaches who you’ve been with in the past, such as Todd Downing, who will experience the Super Bowl for the first time in his career. What does it mean for you to go through this Super Bowl experience with a lot of assistants who you previously put time in with?

MV: Yeah, again, just try to put a good staff together for the players. We talked about the knowledge that they have, being able to develop players, and being able to inspire them with confidence and trust, guys that make connections. I think they’ve all done that. I think Todd’s done a really, really good job with that wide receiver group. You can tell by their unselfishness. Every receiver wants the ball. Every receiver wants 150 targets a year. That may or may not happen. That group has provided us a lot of production, but from different guys. It wasn’t just one guy. It wasn’t just Stef. Everybody contributed, and I think that has a lot to do with Todd. The staff means a lot to me. Their families mean a lot to me. I know what they go through. I know the strain that sometimes is put on their families, and they do it because they love these players, they love football and they love this team.

 

Q: I’m curious. You have a lot of young players on the roster, but specifically as it pertains to this rookie class, as you reflect on this season, what’s it just been like to see their growth and now to have this opportunity to play in this game?

MV: Yeah, I think it’s gone really fast. I think since the time that we drafted them until now, it’s gone really quickly. And you have seen them mature. I think you’ve seen them become more comfortable. I think you see TreVeyon talk yesterday about getting married and about just growing up, and you see Will [Campbell] developing in this team and Jared [Wilson] and Craig [Woodson], and you don’t really even look at them as rookies anymore after Thanksgiving. No, the team will tell you they’re going to still be rookies until after their third game next year. But they don’t act like rookies anymore. We don’t look at them as rookies anymore. They’ve been contributors on this football team, and we’re happy that they’ve helped us get us here.

 

Q: After your time with Tennessee and your time with Cleveland, did you say to yourself or make a conscious effort that you wanted to do something different next time you got the opportunity as a head coach? How do you think you’ve evolved as a head coach?

MV: I just wanted to win more than what we did. That usually helps. I mean, the biggest thing that I learned is that I wanted nothing more than to be a head coach again and just understand how important the connections are with the players and not losing sight of that, even as a head coach. When I was in my role in Cleveland, which I’m so grateful for, I had a lot of time to spend with assistant coaches. I had a lot of time to spend with players, with young players, with developmental players on Mondays and Tuesdays. My office wasn’t upstairs where the coaching staff was or where the personnel department was. It was downstairs with the players in the training room and the weight room. So, I kind of got back to the basics of just what this game is about and making connections, and it’s about the people and getting the players to find ways to improve, and to develop them and give them confidence. So, maybe it wasn’t something that I wanted to do differently, but it was just an affirmation of this is what’s important.

 

Q: Mike, there’s been a shift over the last decade or so with coaching philosophy about going forward on fourth down. It’s kind of drastically changed. How has your view on that change through the years, and how do you weigh the numbers, the percentages, versus other factors in a game?

MV: I think that’s just what you have to do. You have to decide what type of game this is, what the offense is doing, what you think about the play call, where it is on the field, what you feel like the game is going to require. Is it going to require some field goals? Is it going to be a low-scoring game? Or is this going to be a game that we’re going to have to score touchdowns in? Sometimes it kind of differs game to game. I think we’ve tried to be aggressive when we should. Probably just doing the best to marry the numbers up with how I feel like the game’s going.

 

Q: Both you guys in the Seahawks like to use stunts games up front. How big of a factor do you think that will be on Sunday, about how the teams handle that? And also, how have you seen those evolve since you were a player?

MV: One, it will be a huge factor in the game. They’re pretty good at it. Not pretty good, they are really good at it. That’s a strength of what they do. That’s how they are able to apply pressure with a four-man rush, is they can straight rush and guys work off of each other, but then guys work well together to get somebody else free or even be the guy that gets free. They pick, they drive to the quarterback and they make it difficult on you. So, that will be a huge factor in the game, our ability to protect those in passing downs and passing situations, and not let the guy get to the back hip of the lineman, and then be able to drive, and then you create a two-on-one. So, they’ve probably evolved in just some of the way that we do it, as some of the other teams are doing it as well. Based on who you have, the personnel, I think it’s driven by the style and what you’re going to do, the game or where you line up. Is it a linebacker doing it? Is it a defensive lineman or is it a defensive end? So, I would say that the body type probably dictates the technique and what you’re going to use to try to pick or run a game.

 

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